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Season 1 – Spain – Qualifying – 19th
I’d heard the AI were a lot quicker here but I thought to myself it’s nothing I can’t handle. I was so wrong, the AI are so OP at this circuit. I managed to reach a 1:24.973 but that was only good enough for 19th. Trulli qualified behind me on a 1:25.313.

Season 1 – Spain – Race – DNF
I decided to start on primes and try and mix things up a bit. Into the first corner I managed to move into 17th, which pleased me, until I lost a place to Barichello at T3 due to running out wide. I drove my socks off for 3 laps, but couldn’t create a gap back to Buemi and I lost Barichello within a lap. Then I messed up T3, ran out wide onto the bumpy tarmac on the outside of the corner, my car started jumping around and I spun around. I collected Chandhok who also DNF’d, but I survived unscathed, albeit last. I started pushing too hard, and had a few snaps of oversteer that I barely controlled. Then, come lap 4 at the final corner, I was too aggressive on the throttle and slammed the car into the pit wall, crashing out. Very costly for my championship challenge, and for Lotus.

Season 1 – China – Qualifying – 15th
The car wasn’t feeling too strong in practice, and I picked up most of my time on the straights, losing a lot of time in the middle sector. However, I managed to clock a 1:37.949, 2.2 seconds off of Webber on pole and 2.2 seconds ahead of Trulli in 22nd. There’s a 55% chance of rain forecast for the race.

Season 1 – China – Race – 10th
I started on primes in case it rained in the race, however this turned out to be a bad call. I had a somewhat sluggish start off the line, but managed to take a few places into turn one, and I was up into 10th. I fell back a bit from the cars ahead initially, but started to catch them again. I was able to take 9th off of Petrov going into T1, and 8th from Kubica at T5. I was then promoted to 7th by Webber pitting at the end of lap 2. Another weird strategy, courtesy of Red Bull. From there I was just trying to set some consistent laptimes, and eventually I was into 2nd due to pitstops. I started making a lot of mistakes and lost a lot of time, so when I stopped for options on lap 8, I came out in 14th place. I quickly took care of Chandhok at T10, and Glock on the exit of T11. I set about chasing down Button and took 11th away from him on the long straight the following lap. Petrov was 2 seconds ahead, but I managed to close in and take 10th place on the long straight again. Kubica, however, was too far ahead for me, and I was unable to catch him.

I wasn’t really expecting a lot from this race anyway, China is arguably my weakest track to drive. Fortunately for me, neither Webber or Button scored points, so I didn’t lose out to 2 of my closest rivals. But now, the championship is remarkably close.

Season 1 – Malaysia – Qualifying – 14th
I went 14th in qualifying with a time of 1:38.037, a shocking 2.7 seconds off of Vettel on pole. My teammate Trulli was starting in 18th, 1.5 seconds off my time. All in all, a successful qualifying for Team Lotus.

Season 1 – Malaysia – Race – 4th
I elected to start on the options, with Trulli on primes. I got a good initial get away, but with my lack of engine power I dropped to 16th by T1. However with late braking and “right place right time” syndrome, I ended up making my way into 11th. I was side by side with Alonso for 10th through T3 and outbraked him on the outside of T4, and on the outside of Sutil on the exit, outdrove the Force India into 9th. Next up was Kubica with Petrov just in front of him. Into the double apex of T7/8 I took much more speed and drove around the outside of Kubica, before putting my car around the outside of Petrov into T9 and taking 7th. Massa was ahead of me, and I reeled him in slowly, with the gap fluctuating around the 1 second mark. I managed to close up to him on lap 3, and took him on the exit of T4, putting me into 6th.

Later that lap 2 drivers ahead of me made their pitstops lifting me to 4th. I put in a solid in lap and pitted on lap 4, coming out in a net 6th place (actually 16th), with Vettel 4 seconds up the road. The next lap pitstops moved me into 8th, but I knew not everyone had stopped yet. Vettel however started slowing massively, and I wondered if he’d damaged his car or he had an issue of some kind. However, as I drew closer I discovered it was due to Lucas Di Grassi having not made his pitstop yet holding him up majorly. As we started lap 7 I was less than a second behind, and having followed the pair round for half the lap, Vettel was slow off of turns 7/8 and I saw my chance. I made a move around the outside and got a much better drive out of the corner to take the place. Di Grassi pitted later that lap Promoting me to 5th place, and I started creating a gap back to Vettel. To my surprise it was Petrov in front of me, and I’m still not sure what happened to Massa. But anyway, I started closing in on Petrov at about half a second a lap, until lap 9, where I made a small mistake and totally messed up turns 5 through 8.

However, later that lap, as I rounded the final corner I saw a car peeling into the pits. It was none other than my aussie championship rival Mark Webber! This promoted me to 4th, and I started pushing again, sniffing a 3rd consecutive podium. However, this must’ve spurred Petrov on because he started pulling away alarmingly quickly. Then at the end of that lap I locked up into the penultimate turn (of the penultimate lap), allowing Vettel to pass me, which was a concern. Points are very valuable to me. So I launched a desperate move on the inside at the final corner but he saw it coming and just took a wide line around the outside, and he pulled away on the exit. I reeled him in at T1 and T4 and was right on his tail on the exit of T6. He went defensive into T7/8 and braked a bit too early. I saw my opportunity and took the place back around the outside, just keeping the car under control. He made a mistake on the exit anyway and lost a couple of seconds. I then just took it easy and brought the car home in 4th.

Mark Webber ended up in 10th, due to awful strategy work by RBR. Button won the race and I believe Hamilton made it a McLaren 1-2, the first of this season. This race shook up the order of the championships in a big way, as you’ll now see. But, much to my joy, I was now leading the championship!!!

Season 1 – Australia – Qualifying – 18th
My one lap pace in qualifying on this game seems to be absolutely awful! I went 13th fastest with (I believe) a 1:29.6xx (been a while since I completed this round). However, I’d had a bizarre tangle with De La Rosa in practice where he slowed down immensely through the quick left right chicane, causing me to shunt him, and in turn, giving me a five place grid penalty.

Season 1 – Australia – Race – 1st
I elected to start on the prime tyres and go for a longer first stint. Off the line I managed to hold my position, and down into turn one I instantly moved up into 14th by cutting a nice path through T1, and down into T3 I took another place. T4 and Barichello was sticking his Williams up the inside of the Sauber of Kobayashi. With Kamui forced out wide, I took advantage and followed Barichello through into 12th. Come T9 I outbraked Barichello and planted the car on the apex, taking 11th place.

Next up a couple of seconds up the road was Liuzzi with his teammate Sutil just in front of him. I gained massive time on them through turns 11 and 12, and was right on the back of Liuzzi. I launched a move on Liuzzi into T13 and took the place with ease, braking a tad too late to try and intimidate Sutil. It worked, and he faltered on the exit, putting me right on his tail, and into the penultimate turn I stuck my car on the inside and took the place. Now up to 9th the next car up was the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, 3 seconds ahead of me. I spent the next lap or two closing him down, and he was being held up in a battle with Alonso. On lap 3, I was half a second back and they were side by side on the Run down to T1. Petrov on the inside braked far too early, and I took advantage and followed Alonso around the outside into 8th. Having chased Alonso for the majority of the lap, I closed right up going into sector 3, and made a move up the inside at the penultimate turn, putting me in 7th. 3 cars ahead of me pitted, lifting me to 4th. The next lap everyone else on options pitted and I went into the lead, with just over 10 seconds over Webber in second. I pushed like crazy, and to my amazement I found myself pulling away from Webber at almost a second every lap.

I made my stop for options on lap 8, coming out in 4th just behind Vettel. On fresh options I quickly dispatched him later that lap, simply driving around him at T9/10. I started pushing hard again, as I knew time was gonna run out fast, and I had 2.6 seconds to Button. It took me a lap to catch him, closing right onto the back of him on the run down to T13. I dispatched him at the penultimate corner, and Webber was another 4.3 seconds up the road. With 2 laps to go, I knew a win would be a big ask of myself, the car, and the tyres (which were already yellow). But I felt it was possible if I drove hard and made no mistakes. By the end of the penultimate lap the gap was 2.1 seconds. I closed right up to the back of Webber on the exit of the quick left right chicane. He defended the inside line into T13, pushing me out wide, but compromising his line into T14. I moved to the outside and he moved his car over to the right, before I flicked the car to the inside and outbraked him into the penultimate turn. I took the position, and after that it was just a case of driving around the final corner to take my first win.

In all honesty I was just hoping for points when I started so far back, 5th would’ve been amazing, but I was ecstatic with a win and so were the team. By far the best race I’ve ever driven on any game in any game mode against anyone. This evens out the championship now at the top.

Started a new career with Lotus F1 Team. First practice session consisted of me getting a feel for the car and how it handled, it’s different behaviours, etc. Got a setup sorted, onto qualifying.

(Settings are Legend AI, all assists off except the racing line, short qualifying and 20% race)

Season 1 – Bahrain – Qualifying – 7th

I went out right at the end of the session, and hooked up pretty much every apex, clocking a time quick enough for 7th on the grid. Roll on the race.

Season 1 – Bahrain – Race – 2nd

I was slow off the line, falling to 8th before turn one, but after Alonso and Massa had a coming together in front of me, I was able to slip into 4th, with Vettel and Hulkenburg forcing eachother out wide. I snatched 3rd place going into the next turn, braking later and throwing it up the inside of Button. Webber was up next but I made short work of him as he ran wide on the exit of T4/5, gifting me another place. Hamilton ran wide through the complex and, having closed up on him immediately, I got a better exit from the complex and took first place. Going into turn 12, he made a lunge from far back, but crashed into the side of me, losing his front wing. He did me a favour and held everyone up for a couple of corners.

After setting the fastest lap, I pulled the gap out to 4.3 seconds by lap 3. However this was my designated lap to pit, as I was hoping to gain the undercut and maintain track position. My in-lap was awful, and I was just 2 seconds ahead of Webber when I pitted. I came out in 7th, quickly maneuvering past Hulkenberg at T5 and De La Rosa on the run down to T12. At the end of lap 4 everybody left in front of me had pitted, and I came out 3.2 seconds ahead of Webber. I managed to extend my lead to 6 seconds by lap 7, but then I started making silly mistakes, and he really dropped the hammer. At the start of lap 8 it was down to 2 seconds. Sadly I started pushing too hard, and spun the car right around on the exit of turn 1. Webber went right by, and I tried to chase him down again, but a gap of 2.6 seconds sat between us. I got it down to 1.3 by the start of the final lap, then locked up heavily into turn 1, losing all that time. So I just saved what I could of the engine, backed off, and settled for 2nd place. I will only be posting the top 3 in the championship until malaysia, to make things easier.

@davidnotcoulthard no chance of that this year XD @robocat I’m more than happy to wait until you come up with a solution buddy, I think you’re doing a great job so try not to worry about the season not having started yet :)

It’s @bradley13 who deserves the credit for my car, but I won’t deny it’s a pleasure to be using it this season ;) and nice car @diceman, looks good in a nice simplistic way but it’s also pretty bold at the same time

@pezlo2013 an article I spent a fair amount of time on before it was wiped when I posted it which keeps happening so I’m going to try and get around it as it’s supposed to be like a plot point I guess you could say lol